Blinken flies to Jamaica for regional talks on Haiti crisis

KINGSTON, Jamaica (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Jamaica on Monday to attend a Caribbean Community (CARICOM) meeting on Haiti where a collapse in security in the capital and a humanitarian crisis in the Caribbean nation has unfolded, the State Department said.

Blinken landed in Kingston on Monday afternoon on a trip organized at the last minute as spiraling violence by armed groups threatens to bring down Haiti’s government.

On Sunday, the U.S. military airlifted non-essential personnel and stepped up security at Washington’s embassy in Port-au-Prince.

The State Department said in a statement that Blinken “will discuss a proposal developed by CARICOM and Haitian stakeholders to expedite a political transition in Haiti through the creation of a broad-based, independent presidential college,” a reference to a proposed committee that would oversee Haiti ahead of elections.

The statement did not identify who the Haitian stakeholders were.

Blinken will also discuss a multinational security mission to restore security to Haiti, which is set to be led by Kenya.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Washington was looking to expedite the deployment of the mission, which Haiti’s prime minister requested in 2022. It was authorized by the UN Security Council in October.

The United Nations estimates hundreds of thousands have been displaced and thousands killed in the overall conflict in Haiti, with widespread reports of rape, torture and ransom kidnappings since 2021.

Haiti entered a state of emergency on March 3 as clashes damaged communications and led to two prison breaks after Jimmy “Barbeque” Cherizier, a leader of an alliance of armed groups, said they would unite and overthrow Haiti’s unelected Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

Henry, who came to power after the 2021 assassination of the country’s last president, is currently stranded in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. Blinken last week pressed him on the urgent need to accelerate a transition to a more inclusive government.

A senior State Department official said U.S. officials have been working with regional countries on establishing a transitional committee that would oversee the multinational force and pave the way to the first elections since 2016.

Blinken will also meet with Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness to discuss bilateral and regional issues, the department said.

(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis; additional reporting by Simon Lewis in Washington and Brendan O’Brien in ChicagoEditing by Bernadette Baum, Chizu Nomiyama and Aurora Ellis)